1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bill processor, and particularly, to a bill processor capable of favorably aligning and stacking bills the lengths of which in the delivery direction are different from one another.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-149517 filed May 30, 2006, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bill processor which delivers bills (Euro bills, etc.) the longitudinal length of which are different from one another in their longitudinal direction, and aligns and stacks the bills in the same stacking unit with their leading edges arranged is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, No. H06-183621.
In this bill processor, a bill is conveyed to an upper space of a stacking unit, and the trailing edge of the bill is struck and dropped into a stacking unit by an impeller (striking and dropping unit). This impeller is installed so as to be movable in the delivery direction of bills, and moves according to the length (length in the delivery direction) of a bill delivered into the upper space.
However, since the conventional bill processor needs a mechanism which moves the impeller in the delivery direction of bills and rotationally drives the impeller, its structure is complicated.
Also, if the impeller is made to move in the delivery direction of bills while the impeller strikes and drops the bills, it is not possible to align and stack the bills. That is, in the case where the impeller is made to move upstream in the delivery direction when bills are struck and dropped, a bill in the course of being struck and dropped may be caused to move upstream. At this time, in a case where the impeller is made to move downstream in the delivery direction, a bill in the course of being struck and dropped may be caused to move downstream. As a result, there is a possibility that bills cannot be aligned and stacked in the stacking unit, and consequently, poor stacking may be caused. Particularly if a preceding bill is moved downstream in the stacking unit, the bill may be stuffed into the stacking unit and curl up. A succeeding bill collides against the preceding bill, and consequently, alignment of bills becomes much more difficult.
Therefore, movement of the impeller in the delivery direction of bills needs to be performed while the impeller is surely separated from the trailing edge of a bill. For this reason, it is difficult to stop rotational driving of the impeller during movement of the impeller, and to increase the conveyance speed of bills or shorten the conveyance interval of bills. That is, increasing the throughput per unit time of bills is hindered.